•^    J  Conf  Pam  12ino  #S99 

isnv  I>^^D^flSD^. 

^533 


No.  94. 

WHY  SIT  YE  HERE  IDLE? 


This  significant  and  stirrincj  inquiry  was 
addressed  by  the  prophet  to  his  country- 
men, when  threatened  with  war,  famine, 
and  pestilence,  as  the  punishment  ot 
their  great  sins.  He  seems  to  see  the  sor- 
est calamities  just  ready  to  overwhelm 
them ;  he  drops  the  thread  of  prophecy, 
and  cries  out,  Why  do  we  ait  still,  till  de- 
struction overtake  us?  Let  us  ttee  into 
>the  defenced  cities,  and  seek  a  refuge  from 
threatening  evils. 

Fellow-citizen,  fellow-sinner,  whoever 
you  may  be,  pardon  me,  if  I  seem  abrupt- 
ly to  address  this  inquiry  to  you.  A  case 
80  urgent,  and  so  deeply  involving  your 
dearest   interests,  admits   of  no   delay, — 


Methinks  I  see  you  tlireatened  witL  war, 
famine,  and  pestilence ;  a  disastrous  war 
with  God,  a  famine  of  the  bread  of  life, 
and  a  pestilence  that  kills  the  soul.  And 
I  cannot  refrain  from  asking,  in  all  the 
urgency  of  an  aiFectionate  solitude  for  your 
eternal  well-being,  Why  sit  you  here  idle  1 

Do  you  say,  I  have  nothing  to  do?  A 
miner  nothing  to  do,  who  has  a  life  of  sin 
to  repent  of*  a  world  of  sin  within  him  to 
su<>due,  another  world  of  sin  about  him  to 
reclaim,  and  a  liejl  of  endless  sin  and  mise- 
ry yawning  before  him  to  escape ;  who  has 
not  yet  entered  upon  the  work  of  securing 
the  pardon  of  his  sins  and  the  salvation  of 
his  soul ;  who  has  yet  to  decide  between 
death  and  life,  between  heaven  and  hell ! 
Surely  j^ou  have  enough  to  do  :  you  have 
a  work  assigned,  you  as  the  business  of 
life.  Life  was  given  you  tor  no  other  pur- 
pone  than  to  do  it. 

And  it  is  a  great  and  difficult  work, — 
For  a  sinner  to  become  a  Christian,  a 
child  of  hell  an  heir  of  heaven,  is  a  work  oi 
such  unequalled  magnitude,  and  such  ex- 
treme difficulty,  that  you  are  exhorted  in 
the  Scriptures  to  strive  and  agonize  for  its 
accoraphshrnent^j  to  t^ke  the  kingdom  oi 


heavon  by  violence  ;  and  you  are  told,  that 
so  far  from  being  oble  to  do  it  at  any  mo- 
ment without  much  effort,  it  is  impossible 
for  yoa  to  do  it  by  your  unaided  exer- 
tions; so  that  if,  by  ftittii^g  idle,  you  weary 
out  the  patience  ot  God,  and  forfeit  hfs 
help,  yon  will  never  be  able  to  accomplish 
it,  and  will  lose  your  soul.  Why  then  will 
you  sit  idle  ? 

Not  because  God  interposes  any  obsta- 
cles to  your  salvation.  Look,  I  pray  yt»u, 
at  what  God  hath  sacritlced  in  the  person 
of  the  Father,  and  suffered  in  the  person 
of  the  Son,  and  done  in  the  person  of  the 
Spirit,  for  your  salvation.  Look  at  all  the 
declarations  of  his  word,  and  tlie  arrange- 
ments ot  his  providence,  and  the  provi- 
sions of  his  grace,  and  tell  me  what  more 
he  could  have  done  tor  you  than  he  has 
already  done.  And  have  you  the  hardi- 
hood, have  you  the  injustice  and  ingrati- 
tude, in  the  face  of  all  this,  to  charge  bini 
w^ith  unwillingness  that  you  should  be 
saved  ?    Why  then  sit  idle '? 

Kot  because  others   will   do   this  great 

WDrk  for  you.     God  desires  to   have   it 

Idone,  with  a  strength  of  feeling  and  an 

rdor  of  lov3   for  your   soul,  which  you 


cantiot  conceive,  which  words  cannot  ex- 
press, which  (iini  be  set  forth  only  by  such 
signs  of  iivfliiite  signi-ficance  as  the  incar- 
nation of  his  Bon,  the  bloody  agonies  of 
the  garden,  the  atoning  sacrifice  on  the 
cross,  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit. — 
But  it  w  you  who  must  repent  and  believe, 
'svho  must  trust  in  the  merits  of  Christ, 
and  cherish  the  influences  of  the  Spirit. — 
Pious  parents  and  Christian  friends  can 
pray  f  n-  you,  and  labor  with  you,  and 
weep  over  you,  but  they  cannot  shed  the 
tear  of  penitence,  nor  offer  the  prayer  of 
the  publican  in  your  stea*l,  nor  in  your, 
stead  become  reconciled  to  God  ;  no,  nor 
in  your  stead  suiter  the  wrath  of  God  and 
the  pains  of  hell  for  ever.  Your  own  eye 
must  see.  and  your  oiori  ear  liear^  and  yc'Ur 
oivn  heart  fpeL  Yourself  n\xx?>i  repent  and 
believe,  and  love  and  act  in  the  most  vigor- 
ous €.f:erc-se  of  your  best  powers  and  affec- 
tions. You  must  give  an  account  oi your- 
self beibro  God.  ■  x^nd  your  own  soul 
must  be  saved  or  lost.  inetlUbly  happy  or 
unutterably  miserable  forever?  Why, 
then  s.t  idle? 

Kot  because  ifc  is  a  matter  of  so  small 
importauce  whether  the  work  is  done  ur 


not  J  that  it  may  safely  be  left  to  take  care  of 
itself.  Sit  idle,  and  so  far  from  doing  the 
work,  or  its  being  done  for  you,  you  are 
doing  the  opposite  with  your  might.  Sit 
idle,  and  your  feet  are  rtwift  in  the  road  to 
liell.  Do  this  work,  and  you  have  done 
all  that  chioiiy  concerns  you.  Neglect  it, 
and  you  have  done  nothing  that  i^of  any 
value.  You  have  wasted  your  time,  per- 
verted your  talents,  thrown  away  yourtself 
at  one  fearful  cast  tor  ever.  And  what  is 
a  man  advantaged,  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  lose  himself^  Why  then  sit 
idle? 

Not  because  you  have  any  too  much 
time  for  doing  this  work.  God  gives  us 
time  tor  thi^?  purpose,  and  for  no  other. — 
Every  man  feels,  when  he  lies  uj)on  his 
dying  bed,  that  the  whole  of  life  wisely 
devoted,  was  not  a  moment  too  much  to 
make  his  calling  and  election  sure.  Yet 
you  have  spent"  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  forty 
years,  without  entering  upon  the  great 
business  of  life.  Have  you  any  more  time 
to  throw  away — you,,  who  never  had  too 
much,  and  yet  have  wasted  one-half,  two- 
thirds,  perhaps   nearly   all  of  it,  perhaps 


all  but  the  very  last  flay  or  hcair  ?    l>o  you 
stili  linger? 

Think  not  that  other  beings  and  other 
things  will  stand  sii  li  and  wait  for  your 
action.  Every  th^ug  else  will  move  on., 
whether  yon  do  or  not.  Lite  will  flee 
iipnce,  and  death  will  hurry  on.  Death 
never  stands  still  :  be  has  already  begun 
his  work  on  you,  he  wili  not  stop  tillhe 
has  finisbed  h,  and  he  v>"Jl  finish  it  far 
r-ooncr  than  you  expect.  Time  wili  roll 
away,  and  eternity  draw  near.  Time 
never  stand.s  still:  it  rolls,  it  flies  away, 
like  the  vapor;  like  the  li lightning  ilash,  it 
appears  for  an  instant,  nnd  then  darts 
away^  to  be  seen  no  more.  *  God  never  sits 
fitill.  Give  thanks  to  him  that  he  does 
not  fail  to  cause  the  sun  to  rif3e  and  the 
rain  to  descend.  He  will  carry  forward 
the  wheels  of  nature,  and  the  arrange- 
ments of  his  providence,  and  the  designs 
of  his  grace,  and  all  his  steadfast  nar- 
j}oses.  Christ  never  sits  still.  What  if  he 
had  remained  in  the  bosom  ot  the  Father, 
or  should  now  suspend  his  work  of  inter« 
cession?  He  will  build  up  his  kingdom 
and  gather  in  his  elect,   aud  bring  you  to 


his  ju(]giQeiit-st?at,  (ind  fhow  your  Eaked 
soul  to  your  own  eye  iind  to  the  aBsembied 
universe,  and  proiiouiice  upon  you  the  ir- 
reversible sentence  of  bleseiiiff*or  cui^ing. 
and  send  you  to  hejrivenor  hell,  where  you 
will  sit  idle  no  more  ;  where  you  w'ill  do 
yonr  appointed  vvork,  and  do  it  well,  and 
keep  doiug  it  with<>ut  cessation,  and  with- 
out end  :  for  so  do  all  in  the  unseen  world. 
Heaven  is  never  idle.  Saints  an  angels 
servo  God  day  and  night  in  his  temple. — 
They  never  need  and  never  wish  to  rest  in 
their  .s.eraphic  work.  And  it  is  the  per- 
feelion  of  their  state,  that  the  period  will 
ncM^r  arrive  when  they  wilt  be  inactive  — 
Tney  ^\i]\  work  on,  and  sing  on,  and  shine* 
on  for  (rver.  xVnd  when  they  have  out- 
lived thtii  own  highest  conception  of  a 
happy  eterniiyy  it  will  be  the  peijection  ot 
their  bliss  ti  at  it  is  yet  to  be  et       ^,^^ 

Hell  is  wever  still..  Dev^:  .  d  joet  men 
too,  have  no  lest  day  nor  .j^t,  no  rest  in 
sinning,  no  re^t  in  sufrering,  no  rest  iu 
sinking  deeper  .nd  deeper  still  in  remorse 
and  despair^an'i  shame  and  everlaBtin^ 
contempt :  *  "^ 


"  Burning  continually,  yet  unconsumed  ; 
For  ever  wasting,  yet  eudurioj?  still  ; 
Dying  perpetually,  yet  never  dead  : 
Where  there  are   groans  that  never  end,  and  sighs 
That  always  sigh,   and  tears  th-at  ever  weep, 
■  And  ever  fall,  but  not  in  Mercy's  sight." 

No;  they  never  sit  idle  in  hell,  and  they  never 
will;  and -that  is  the  keenest  pang  in  t.heir  suffer- 
ings. When  they  have  groaned  out  a  period  lon- 
ger than  their  utmost  imagination  of  an  BUrnity, 
it  will  be  the  bitterest  ingredient  in  their  cup— 
the  deep  still  lower  than  the  lowest  deep  in  hell — 
that  it  is  yet  to  he  eternal. 

Have  you  yet  to  choose  between  these  two 
worlds?. for  in  one  or  the  other  you  must  dwell, 
and  must  work  for  ever.  Why  then,  0  why  sit 
idle  ?  How  will  you  answer  the  question  to  your 
own  .understanding,  to  your  conscience,  to  your 
duty,  to  your  interest,  lt>  the  world,  and' to  God? 
Sit  idle,  when  property  and  reputation,  and 
health  and  life  are  at  stake,  sit  unmoved  betore 
the  lion's  paw,  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  at  the  edge 
of  the  precipice,  on  the  brink  of  the  cataract, 
and  I  will  hold  my  peace.  Buf  I  cannot  keop 
silenc/e  and  see  you  sit  idle  in  a  world  of  proba- 
tion, in  a  Christian  land,  on  the  eve  of  the  judg- 
ment, on  the  brink  of  eternity,  on  the  dividing 
line  between  an  eternal  heaxen  and  an  eternal 
hell.  W 


HoUinger  Corp. 
pH  8.5 


